Training and Technical Assistance

EDC is working to assist thousands of out-of-school young people in Haiti who are living on the streets, in domestic servitude, or with families too poor to provide them an education.

More than 200 educational leaders from across the country gathered in Boston last September for a three-day conference focused on a particularly promising school improvement strategy. The “Instructional Coaching Conference,” organized by EDC’s Center for Leadership and Learning Communities (CLLC), featured success stories from several large urban districts across the country that have hired full-time coaches to provide ongoing professional development to teachers.

Two EDC projects are working with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Macedonia to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve education and business. The e-BIZ and e-Schools projects, both conducted under USAID’s DOT-COM Alliance, are part of Macedonia’s efforts to boost economic growth and rebuild communities in the wake of the region’s recent upheavals.

EDC is part of a team that developed a regional life-skills-based curriculum framework that will allow curriculum planners, education officers, teacher educators, and teachers to review, develop, and strengthen national Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) curricula and curriculum guides throughout the Caribbean.

Some researchers approach schools with a certain level of arrogance: ‘We know what’s right, and we think we’ll make your lives better if only you’ll let us.’ It’s well intentioned but it’s very misguided. We have a different mindset at EDC; we hold firm to the notion that our collaborations need to be done in partnership and that our work is not about importing knowledge into a district.

EDC partners with St. Francis House in Boston on a number of programs addressing issues of homelessness and addiction.